Pathos Trio

Artists
Program
Preview
Performances
Bios

“Elevated themselves into those elite ranks alongside Yarn/Wire, Tigue, So Percussion, Iktus and Ensemble Et Al”, as described by the New York Music Daily, Pathos Trio (percussionists Marcelina Suchocka, Felix Reyes, and pianist/composer Alan Hankers) is an ensemble committed to pushing the boundaries of classical/contemporary music, while also aiming to bring adventurous music to audiences through collaborations with young, living new music composers.

Whether it’s performing across the U.S., working on large scale commissions, or creating exciting projects with music organizations across NYC and abroad, Pathos Trio strives to be as collaborative as possible with their initiatives and with the people they work with.

Their current project “When Dark Sounds And Classical Music Collide”, the ensemble’s first album, comprises a collection of newly commissioned works written by composers Alison Yun-Fei Jiang, Evan Chapman, Alyssa Weinberg, Alan Hankers, and Finola Merivale. This album is set to release in Fall 2021 through Innova Records and is graciously supported by New Music USA, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and Artist Relief.

Most recently Pathos was named an Ensemble Forward grantee by Chamber Music America and is slated to perform several virtual/live concerts starting in March 2021, along with planning their first international tour with Danish chamber choir ENSEMBLE EDGE in Spring 2022 in Aarhus, Denmark. Pathos is expected to resume live performances in Fall 2021/Spring 2022 at New World Center, Stanley Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center, Rittenhouse Soundworks, and will announce in the near future their next slate of 4-5 composers they will be commissioning for their Fall 2021/Spring 2022 season.

To learn more about the ensemble and upcoming activities, please be sure to check out their website at www.pathostrio.com

Artists

Felix Reyes – Percussion
Marcelina Suchocka – Percussion
Alan Hankers – Piano

Program

Distance Between Places
Alan Hankers (b.1992)

Falling Flames
Finola Merivale (b.1987)

Rain Tree Sketch for solo piano
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)

Dance of the Drums
Gene Koshinski (b.1980)

Prayer Variations (virtual premiere)
Alison Yun-Fei Jiang (b.1992)

For their program Bridging The World: From the Americas to East Asia, please join Pathos Trio for an exciting virtual evening full of music that celebrates the works of composers from all across the globe from Canada, to Japan, Ireland, all the way back to the United States.

Their program starts off with Pathos’ very own Alan Hankers, an American composer whose work Distance Between Places focuses on the relationship between soundscapes of a particular place and memory. As the work unfolds, various layers emerge to the foreground to form distinct rhythmical sections that symbolize the ideas of remembering and reordering. In this way, the title of the work refers to the sounds of somewhere as it exists, and how our memory of that place changes over time.

Next comes Irish composer Finola Merivale and her work Falling Flames, whose title comes from the phrase “burning candles at both ends.” The concept of time is structural to the piece, and as the work gradually falls through various registers, the energy changes from fast-paced semiquaver repetitions to slower passages with more space, allowing the music to resonate.

Afterwards comes along Japanese contemporary pioneer Toru Takemitsu and his work Rain Tree Sketch for solo piano, which most writers associate the irregular pace and organic texture of this work with Kensaburo Oe’s “The Clever Rain Tree,” a short story written in honor of French music critic and impresario Maurice Fleuret, of whom Takemitsu also dedicated this piece to in celebration of his fiftieth birthday. Among a number of “water-themed” works Toru Takemitsu composed from the late 1970s, this work imagines water in its various states and planes: as droplets falling from the sky, the sea resting below, or rivulets and rivers in their fluid downhill motions.

The journey of this program comes back to the Americas as we take part in a high powered performance of American composer Gene Koshinski’s Dance of the Drums, the 2nd movement of a larger piece called “Song and Dance.” Normally this fast-paced work is performed through a single shared set-up, but with particular rendition of the piece, the percussionists of Pathos create their own, unique, remote pre-recorded presentation of this heavy hitting duo!

And finally we kick off the ending to this program with Canadian composer Alison Yun-Fei Jiang’s Prayer Variations, a piece that was inspired by visits to cathedral spaces, and is a theme and variations based on a simple, prayer-like melody. Over time, the original prayer melody is varied and transformed. Music unfolds into a sonic experience in motion, journeying through an imaginary, sonorous, and vertical spatial entity.

Preview

Performances

Musicivic Everywhere 
Fri 7:30 PM ET 4/30/21 (Oakmont)
Sun 3:00 PM ET 5/9/21 (Ambler)
Free Tickets

Three Village Chamber Players  
Sun 3:00 PM ET 4/18/21
Fri 7:30 PM ET 4/23/21
Free Tickets

Oakmont Musicivic 
Sun 3:00 PM ET 4/25/21
Fri 7:30 PM ET 4/30/21
Free Tickets

Twin Forks Musicivic
Sun 3:00 PM ET 5/2/21
Fri 7:30 PM ET 5/7/21
Free Tickets

Ambler Musicivic 
Sun 3:00 PM ET 5/9/21
Fri 7:30 PM ET 5/13/21
Free Tickets

Big Sky Musicivic
Sun 3:00 PM MT 5/16/21
Fri 7:30 PM MT 5/21/21
Free Tickets

Bios

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Marcelina Suchocka

Born in Bialystok, Poland, Marcelina Suchocka is a second-year Percussion Fellow at the New World Symphony. She has performed as an extra/substitute percussionist with the Chicago Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Utah Symphony and Hudson Valley Philharmonic. She was also an Associate Percussionist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Most recently Ms. Suchocka has spent summers as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. She was also a fellow at the Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra and Spoleto Festival. She has been the recipient of many awards including first prize in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Concerto Competition, Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and Polish National Alliance’s Young Artist Award.

Ms. Suchocka has performed as soloist with the Chicago Symphony and at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the NPR’s YouTube Big Break competition. She is one of the founding members of Excelsis, an all-female percussion quartet based in New York City and is a founding member of Pathos Trio, a NYC based group whose focus is to play new commissioned works of mixed styles and genres of music. She has also performed as percussionist with the Mark Morris Dance Group as a fellow at Tanglewood, where she collaborated with the great dancer and choreographer, Mark Morris.

Ms. Suchocka graduated from Manhattan School of Music, where she completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees under Christopher Lamb, Duncan Patton, She e Wu, Kyle Zerna, Patsy Dash and Douglas Waddell.

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Alan Hankers

A native to the world of contemporary music, Alan Hankers is a composer and pianist living in Stony Brook, New York. He was the 2017/18 Composer-in-Residence with the Danish new music ensemble, Ensemble Edge, and has been the recipient of grants and residencies from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Virginia Center for the Arts, and the Avaloch Farm Music Institute. His works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia by ensembles such as the Texas State Symphony Orchestra, South Carolina Philharmonic Repertory Orchestra, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Sputter Box, Driftwood Trio, University of Southern Mississippi’s Saxophone Orchestra, Balkan Brass Quintet, Calidore String Quartet, and many others. In addition to concert music, Alan has been an active film & television composer in New York, where he freelances as a composer and assistant at various post-production studios.

As an active pianist, he frequently performs as a soloist and collaborator, and is one of the founding members ofPathos Trio. Beyond the concert hall, he has toured nationally with prominent progressive rock/metal artists. Alan’s performance has been described as “atmospheric” and “striking” by Outburn Magazine. He has also been featured in editions of Metal Hammer (UK) and Prog Magazine. In 2019, he started the progressive metal band, JIA, along with Jacob Umansky (Intervals), and Ivan Chopik (Painted in Exile). The group is set to release their first album and begin touring in 2020.

He is currently pursuing his PhD at Stony Brook University, where he studies composition with Nirmali Fenn, Margaret Schedel, Sheila Silver, Perry Goldstein, and Matthew Barnson.

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Felix Reyes

Born in Brentwood, New York, Felix Reyes is Managing Director of Pathos Trio and is a freelance percussionist living in Brooklyn, NY. He has performed all over the United States and abroad, including various countries such as El Salvador, Germany, Poland, Spain, Japan, and most recently became Artistic Director of international percussion group Symmetrio.

Graduated with his Master’s in Percussion Performance from Bowling Green State University, Felix studied percussion under Dr. Daniel Piccolo and marimba specialist Dr. Isabelle Huang. Furthering his emphasis on marimba performance, Felix also received a Diploma in Marimba Performance at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Sengawa, Japan, where he studied with marimba legend/virtuoso Keiko Abe.  

      Since then Felix has performed all across NYC in venues such as Roulette Intermedium, National Sawdust, Kaufman Music Center, and most recently made his solo Lincoln Center debut in May 2018 with Swiss percussion soloist Fabian Ziegler. Over the course of his career Felix has worked and collaborated with countless acclaimed international artists/composers including all members of Sō Percussion, Ney Rosauro, Michael Colgrass, Dai Fujikura, Jennifer Hidgon, Kaoru Watanabe, Christos Hatzis and Katarzyna Mycka.

His current activities outside of Pathos Trio include being Studio Manager for Sandbox Percussion, preparing for upcoming performances in Spain in April 2020 with marimbist’s Magdalena Myrczik (POL) and David Almagro Garcia (SPA), and preparing for summer 2020 performances in Columbia with percussionist Miguel Antonio Garcia Moreno (COL). Felix is a proud endorser of Marimba One instruments, Sabian Cymbals, and Vic Firth sticks.

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